“Experts estimate that 50 to 100 girls, many of them underage, line the city’s International Boulevard each night” (Logue). This startling statistic is a big issue in Oakland because there is sex trafficking near us and we see those young girls in the streets and just drive by them but never do nothing about it. Some of those underage girls may be forced to sell there body for their “Pimp” to get money for their drugs and etc.Young girls who get involved in prostitution, even if they know the situation is hard, don’t reach out because of fear and don’t know where else to turn because home may not be an option.

There is a lot of underage girls who don’t reach out to someone because they’re scared that their “pimp” might kill them. In the article, “Oakland Struggles to Protect Children from Sex Trafficking” by Meghan Logue She is a graduate at San Francisco state and is a video producer, it says “At 13 she was kidnapped and raped for three days by a group of men. At 14 she was abducted by a man who terrorized her and forced her into prostitution for three weeks” (Logue). Trina was taken from a man that raped her with other man for three days. Ones she hit 14 she got abducted by another man that forced her into prostitution for a long time. She claims that at the age of 5

she started puberty and that she attracted older man. In this position she was already raped at the age of 4 and 7 by a relative. So when she was kidnapped and forced to be a prostitute she must feel dead in the inside because she had been raped at a very young age.If anyway was in the same position as her I would feel scared and sad about everything that I been through. She stopped being prostituted at the age of 19. “He basically got a gun out from the center console and said, ‘If you try to run, I’ll kill you and your family.” This is how we can identify when “Pimps” kidnap underage girls they traumatize them by telling them they will kill them and their family and that is what brainwashed the girls to be sex trafficked. That’s why they don’t reach out for help. But what we can do is to notice how the girls act when they are walking those streets dressed as someone they don’t want to be. Also, something that is very smart is to put undercover man to pick up females and interview them to see if they are being forced to sale their body’s.

Additionally, young girls involved in sex trafficking often don’t speak up because they don’t know where else to turn and home is not an option. One of my interviewees, Kateri Dodds, is a teacher at Life academy and she said,“People who don’t have stable homes”(Dodds). Underage girls that don’t have stabled homes are the ones mostly struggling with being forced into prostitution. It makes me mad because they are forced to do something they don’t want to for someone that is going to take the money away from them like who does that type of stuff.” My interviewee used a specific word underage and that means that they are prostitutes that are 18 and lower. Therefore, Oakland community should do something about this fast before it gets worse and there is more underage girls suffering prostitution.A big reason why underage girls don’t seek for help is because they are scared of there “Pimp” to kill them or their family. In an article “Sex Trafficking, Abductions, Sad Reality in Bay Area” by: Stephanie Chuang it says, “Boeving said up to 70 percent of domestic trafficking victims are foster care youth, with more than 16,000 kids disappearing every year once they age out at 18 and their social security numbers vanish with them – many of them, runaways”(Chuang). This is a big problem in Oakland because their future is basically destroyed. And what is more crazy is that there is 16,000 kids just suddenly go missing and don’t know where they are at or where to look for them.My second interviewee, Nicole Trujillo is a counselor at the school Life Academy and she says there needs to be, “More education in schools on warning signs for underage girls”(Trujillo). She is a good counselor because she helps girls that go through these tough situations and it’s not easy to get out of it. But schools can actually help students mostly underage girls that may like older man but it’s not okay for underage girls to be trying to be with an older man because they may feel like they better when in reality they just may want them for sex trafficking.

In concluding, sex trafficking of underage girls is a very severe issue in Oakland because we always see it happening but most of us never do anything about it. Oakland needs to work together as a community to find a solution to stop prostitution. Many girls are forced to do things they don’t want to do in order to save themselves from violence or death. Young girls don’t reach out because of fear. They don’t know where else to go because going home may not be an option. So what can be an option is the underage girls to come to school because there going to have resources for them there. We are not going to let them suffer especially if there underage. I chose this topic because it is talked about but it doesn’t hit the news so parents can be aware and take care of their children the way it’s supposed to be from those “Pimps”.

Dodds, Kateri. “Interview on Prostitution.” 13 Dec. 2018.

Dodds is a teacher at Life Academy and she has talked to students (girls) that have been in situation like the topic I’m talking about.

She is a credible source because she works in the healthcare industry so she may know that prostitution come with health risks.

“Oakland Struggles to Protect Children from Sex Trafficking.” Al Jazeera America, ALJAZEERA AMERICA , 13 Nov. 2013, 5:00AM, america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/13/oakland-strugglestoprotectchildrenfromsextrafficking.html. This was an article about a girl who was rapped at the age of 4 and 7 by someone she knew and he wasn’t a stranger to her. I feel like she felt alone because in the source it says that she argued with her mom and her not having the support of her own mom made her feel like she had no one to go to. This source is credible because the author Meghan Logue is a graduate at San Francisco state and is a video producer.Trujillo, Nicole. “Prostitution Interview .” 21 Dec. 2018. My interviewee talked about how she was in this group where women had been in that position and she talked about that we need to know the warning signs of it to not get in that situation. This person is credible because she is a counselor at Life Academy and knows a lot about things like this.

Jocelyn, thank you for sharing your insight about this topic. There are many people that are affected by sex-trafficking that go unseen by people, or their families and friends. If you watch football, consistently every year, the superbowl is the largest event that has the most people being sex trafficked – a horrifying amount that happens. every. year. But just as you pointed out, this happens frquently in your community, and it also happens frequently in my own community with students in the area who think that they have no other place to go.
One of the comments that you made in the 4th paragraph was: “Additionally, young girls involved in sex trafficking often don’t speak up because they don’t know where else to turn and home is not an option” and this brings up the questions that if home is not an option, where do these young girls go? Do you think there are any resources or safe houses in Oakland for young people trying to escape the clutches of their “pimps”? If more people within the community who were aware of the signs of sex-trafficking, we can be able to stop prostitution and hold the pimps accountable for their choices to sell people.

Dear: Joclyn,
I am intrigued by your informational essay “Sex trafficking in Oakland,” because you address how the women that are involved in sex trafficing are usually underaged. You also address how some of those girls might not have a choice because they are abducted and forced into this terrible line of work. Finally I also like how you address the fact that this is a problem in the community of Oakland and assert how change must occur. One sentence in your essay that that stands out for me is when you quoted Meghan Logue She and wrote “At 13 she was kidnapped and raped for three days by a group of men. At 14 she was abducted by a man who terrorized her and forced her into prostitution for three weeks” (Logue). Trina was taken from a man that raped her with other man for three days. Ones she hit 14 she got abducted by another man that forced her into prostitution for a long time. She claims that at the age of 5”. I think this is shocking because… It shows that there are actually people who go through these absolutely horrible experiences. This further shows why their must be a change or an effort to stop sex trafficking in Oakland. Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next, because you are a talented writer who gathers strong pieces of evidence that are used in your essays. I also like how you incorporated your own opinions into your essay and overall showed what the city of Oakland should be doing to fix these problems.
-Sincerely, Nathaniel Reyes

I am very amazed by your writing because it talks about how men force underage girls to be prostitutes and they design it to their relatives because they are afraid that something will happen to them because they miss them. This is a big problem because their future is being exposed, so when they are kidnapped or forced to put themselves down or forced to do something they do not want to, they have to tell the authorities.
I think this is something important that we must take into account to not be afraid and denounce.
Thanks for your writing. I hope to see what you write below because I am very interested in how we can help underage girls.

Dear Jocelyn,
One sentence that stood out to me was “Many girls are forced to do things they don’t want to do in order to save themselves from violence or death”. I think this is something many people don’t understand and/or are poorly informed of. It was very empathetic of you to mention the fact that many females don’t have an option to stop what they are doing because it can put their live

Search

Recently Active Members

See what we are reading.

About us

This is a youth-powered social network that was started in 2003 by a group of teachers from local sites of the National Writing Project.

We merged several earlier blogging projects. We have found that there are many advantages to bringing students together in one site that lives beyond any particular class. It's easier for individual students to read and write about their own passions, to connect with other students, comment on each other's work, and create multimedia posts for each other. Further, it's been exciting for us to pool our knowledge about curriculum, connected learning, and digital literacies.

If being part of such a community makes sense to you, we invite you to join us. We welcome all youth and any teacher interested in having students publish online and participate in the give and take of a social network like Youth Voices.